Population concentration growing in Tokyo region: report

The number of people who moved into the Tokyo metropolitan region exceeded the number moving out by 96,524 in 2013, up more than 29,000 from the previous year, a government report showed Thursday.

Of the total, Tokyo saw a population increase as a result of such movement of 70,172 and Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama — the three prefectures surrounding Tokyo — had a combined growth of 26,352.

The report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications underlined an increasing concentration of people in the capital area as compared to Osaka and Nagoya, the nation’s two other major metropolitan regions.

“The trend of population growth in the Tokyo metropolitan region, where many companies are located, strengthened again on the back of Japan’s economic recovery,” the ministry said.

In the Osaka and Nagoya regions, people who moved out outnumbered those who moved in for the first time in three years.

Among prefectures severely hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster in the Tohoku region, people leaving Fukushima Prefecture exceeded those moving to the prefecture by 5,200, significantly less than the 13,843 loss in 2012 and close to the 2010 level of a net 5,752 person decline.

Miyagi Prefecture saw 4,656 more people move in than move out last year, while people leaving Iwate Prefecture outnumbered those moving in by 2,431.

In the Tokyo metropolitan region consisting of the four prefectures, people who moved in exceeded those who moved out in all four prefectures, with Chiba Prefecture seeing more arrivals than departures for the first time in three years.

The Osaka region of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Nara prefectures together saw 6,591 more people leaving the area than moving in, while the Nagoya region made up of Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectures saw 147 more people moving out.